Barclays targeted UBS before Lehman deal: report

SimonKennedy

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Troubled Swiss bank UBS
ch:ubsnUBS, -3.45%
was the preferred merger target of Barclays
BARC, -2.47%BCS, -2.59%
only weeks before the U.K. bank acquired the U.S. assets of Lehman Brothers, the Financial Times reported Tuesday, citing current and former directors. The newspaper said senior executives at the group's Barclays Capital investment banking arm put UBS forward as a more favorable option than Lehman at a July 2008 board meeting. The meeting came not long after Barclays lost out to a consortium of Royal Bank of Scotland
RBS, -1.36%RBS, -2.23%
Fortis
be:forb
and Santander
STD, +6.41%
in the battle for control of ABN Amro. Both RBS and Fortis needed massive government rescues after that deal, while UBS has also been hit hard by the crisis, taking write-downs of more than $50 billion.

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